1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method, and a storage medium which become usable by a user through user authentication.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image processing apparatus which becomes usable by a user through user authentication, which causes the user to execute a login operation for the user authentication when used, and permits the user which has logged in to use it, when a plurality of users log in at the same time, such users alternately execute respective jobs. Then, after the job is completed, each user executes a logout operation by executing an operation such as depressing a logout button for (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-228209).
However, a user may sometimes forget to execute a logout operation. Particularly, when a waiting time is long until the job is completed, the user may leave the image processing apparatus after instructing the execution of the job. Thereby, even after the job is completed, the image processing apparatus is left in a logged-in state, and may be used without notice by another user. Furthermore, when a predetermined time elapses and the user has not performed any operation, the logout operation of the image processing apparatus may be forcibly executed, and in this case, the logout operation may be executed while the user is using the image processing apparatus, so that it is difficult to set a time for executing the forcible logout operation.
To resolve the above problem, such a technique exists that an appointment for the logout operation by the user is accepted, and when the appointment for the logout operation is accepted, the logout operation is executed after the job of the user is completed.
However, in the above conventional technique, it is impossible to inhibit another user to instruct an operation for the job or the execution for a new job between a job start and a job end. In the above conventional technique, when the logout operation is forcibly executed before the job ends, the user becomes unable to instruct setting changes or interruption of the job for the job, of which execution is instructed, which degrades the usability.